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Sims Survivor Challenge
Currently in playtesting... see how it's going here [coming soon]
This challenge is designed specifically for all EPs, although it is not necessary to have them all.
However, the Bon Voyage EP is essential. You need a beach lot, one of the reward items and many of the recreational stuffs. Open For Business and Free Time are also desirable, but if you don't have these EPs, then you can make up your own challenges for immunity and rewards.
The aim of the game: Outwit--oops, trademarked... never mind. The last sim standing wins. :D
The only way you can lose this challenge is if you: 1. cheat, or 2. Kill a sim, although if anyone wants to suggest a possible points system for comparisons I'm game.
The Tribal Home Lots
Make two beach lots for your 2 tribes, any size feasible for your system. The largest lot is ideal, but if your system won't cope, then smaller is fine. You can either make one lot, put it in the lot bin and then use a copy of that lot for both tribes, or you can design each one separately.
There may only be, to start:
- Shelter, if you have the Seasons EP, as you may not allow your sims to die of cold, heat, hailstorms, etc. The shelter may only be large enough to keep your sims... sheltered, if they are all lying down on the floor. This means it may be no wider than 4 squares and no longer than 9 squares. If you do not have Seasons, and your sims cannot die of the weather, then this is optional.
Note: Your shelter will need to have a roof and at least 2 walls -- a flat roof made of floor tiles won't work; you must use the flat "autoroof" feature or the game won't recognise any floor tiles as roofs. Hint: put up 4 walls, add the roof, then remove 2 walls. - A small, complete, livable hut for your controllable sim and for the sims who are voted off of the tribe early in the game. This may have the proper amenities, as comfy as you like, but must be kept behind a locked door or gate for the controllable sim only (use the cheat "move_objects on" to move the eliminated into that area). Place a "lightning rod" on or near this building to lessen the odds of trees catching on fire within the lot--this is summer, after all. Note: this may lead to some or all of your Contestant Sims spending a lot of time trying to get through the locked gate to these amenities and whining at you as their motives get low. Annoying, but tough titties for them. ;) We've all watched the series; it's par for the course. :D
- A flat area large enough for challenges (large enough for 7 treadmills, or 3 log roll things).
- A locked tribal council area with 7 seating spots with comfort no more than 5.
- Fence off the front of the lot or create it in such a way that any visitors to the lot may not enter, or your controllable sim can send them on their way. If you use gates, set them to lock sims only, but "allow pets".
- Best types of plants to use are trees and any plants that don't require care/watering (such as the buyable plants from parsimonious.org).
Custom content is allowed, subject to motive guidelines. The Environment score can be anything you like.
You may use the cheat "motherlode" if necessary to build your lot.
Clearly, Free Will needs to be set to "on".
You may decorate in any way you like, but no food trees, fishing ponds or any other food, comfort, or motive-raising item may be used. No fires or heat sources, or other hobby equipment. If you have seasons, set to 4 x summer.
There is no toilet, no shower, no beds or seating, no skill building objects at all. Yes, no fridge that they can use, so how will you keep them alive? More about that later.
You may install a fire alarm in what will later be the grill/campfire area, either straight away or when they win their fire. The aim of the game is not to get your sims killed, after all.
Add 1 trash bin for the Contestant Sims, near their shelter. This is emptied once per day by the Host Sim. NB: This cannot be the Apartment Life Trash-Tahk Chute or any other that allows for infinite waste disposal.
The Community Lot
You will also need a "reward" lot for the individual rewards challenges later in the game, to be put in the same 'hood as your beach lots (ie, not a downtown, vacation, shopping district, etc, lot).
On this lot, you will need at least the following useable items:
- 1 Soft'n'Tender massage table/masseuse
- A Sweat It Out Sauna )
- Public toilets and sinks
- An Ancient Soakalicious Hot Spring or Hot tub
- A Bar
- A Taste of the Tropics Food Stand or Restaurant
- A Barista
Otherwise, feel free to deck it out, decorate, music, lights, etc, as you see fit, but no hacked items.
Sims:
- Two tribes of 8 sims (16 sims in all). This is made up of 7 uncontrolled sims, the Contestant Sims, plus one controllable sim, the Host Sim. The controllable sim is there only to prevent the death of the others, and is the equivalent of the Survivor medico.
- Make your Host Sim as a separate family (ie, 2 families each of 1 "Host Sim", plus two families each of 7 Contestant Sims). If you are making a story, or similar, showing results, then you may make the same Host Sim for both lots (using a Cloned sim) if you wish.
- All sims should be adults. Elders have a disadvantage due to bladder, etc, differences, and teens need to go to school.
- The Contestant Sims may not have been previously played, even if you strip them of things like aspiration points and such-like, they will still have built invisible stuff like gender preferences. The exception is the Host Sim (see below).
- Personalities and genders for the Contestant Sims must be rolled, thus:
Gender
1 x D6:
Even number: female
Odd number: male
However, each tribe must not have a male/female ratio of more than 4:3, so if you already have 4 of one gender, then you must have 3 of the other.
Appearance
Roll 1 x D6. This is the number of times you hit the "randomise" button in CAS to determine the hair colour of the sim. This is to avoid giving any unfair advantages to any sims in the attraction stakes.
On a roll of 6, the sim must have a custom hair.
Roll again for fitness: on a roll of 1 or 2, the sim must be "fat".
Star signs
1 x D6:
1. Aries or Taurus
2. Gemini or Cancer
3. Leo or Virgo
4. Libra or Scorpio
5. Sagittarius or Capricorn
6. Aquarius or Pisces
Roll again to determine which:
Even number: the first listed
Odd number: the second listed
Aspiration
1 x D6:
1. Romance
2. Knowledge
3. Popularity
4. Family
5. Pleasure
6. Family
For the purposes of this challenge, if you have Free Time installed, you may not use the secondary aspiration or any of the lifetime aspiration benefits.
Attraction
Turn ons and turn-offs are to be selected randomly, in any way you see fit, but only the following ons/offs may be used in either category:
Red hair
Brown hair
Blond hair
Black hair
Custom hair
Swimwear
Underwear
Fit
Fat
Stinky
Beard
Glasses
Clothing
Sims may not wear makeup or custom makeup, jewellery, or hats.
All males must have scruff of some sort. On a roll of 1 or 2, they may wear a beard. On a roll of 3, they must.
They can wear whatever you'd like them to, otherwise. But you will be looking at it for a long time!
NB: If you want to use self-sims and what-have you, then of course appearance will be fixed (subject to removing makeup, etc). In that case, turn ons and turn offs as well as personality must be randomised.
During the game, your Contestant Sims may not:
- Leave the lot (including to work, going on vacation, or indulging in hobby stuff that involves them leaving the lot, eg, hiking, jogging), unless directed by the challenge.
- Read the paper -- have the Host Sim remove it as soon as it is delivered or make that area inaccessible.
- Associate with any sims outside their own tribe, unless specified by the challenge, until the merge. So if one of the other tribe drops by for a visit, it didn't happen.
- Get a job
- Get pregnant deliberately (ie, you may not choose "try for baby" and if you have a hack such as Insim or Inteen then you must use the birth control options). Should a sim get pregnant accidentally, then the pregnancy will not advance with "aging off", however of you are playing with aging on then the sim must be the next voted off in that tribe, as the producers will not allow an unborn child to be endangered by the game.
- Adopt a child, obviously.
- Use any aspiration benefit of any kind, unless specified. This includes the new aspirations/secondary aspirations introduced with the Apartment Life EP.
- Buy any item, except as specified in the challenge.
- Build skills or relationships, except autonomously, or as specified.
- Change clothes except where they do so autonomously (eg, into swimmers when they swim in the ocean), or as directed in the challenge.
- Die. If any sims do die, you fail the challenge. You may feed them once a day as discussed (which will prevent death), if need be, and you may direct them out of the weather and away from things such as fires.
You must turn off any hacks that make keeping a relationship easier, eg, you may not use any hacks that allow sims to woohoo without being in love, or that prevent fighting. You may not use any objects that do the same (such as the McNutty's shower or other similar objects).
Exception: the "no jealousy unless engaged or married" hack is acceptable, as it does not affect relationships in an unrealistic way.
Turn off any hacks that prevent annoying behaviour (such as pillow fighting, etc).
NB: Playing challenges like this is made lots easier if you keep all hacks in a separate folder so you can easily move them onto your desktop and then back in again.
You may not cancel any interaction or action of the Contestant Sims, except where you are directed to do so during the challenge, or in an effort to stop sims being ridiculous and getting themselves killed, for example, if a fire starts on the lot and the sims start their "OMGZ panic panic fire! fire! I shall run into it NOW!!!!!!"
Cheats That May Be Used:
move_objects on : to create lot, move sims into the production area or move "stuck" sims only.
motherlode and/or kaching : to create lot and do enough to make sure the sims are fed
aging off : so you can play your sims once they're finished
Building cheats for building only (eg, rotating 45 degrees, snapping to grid off, etc).
Hacks That May Be Used:
- Any hacks that allow for same sex relationship equality (eg, same sex pregnancy, marriage instead of joined, etc)
- The Simlogical Teleporter or similar may be used to get rid of unwanted visitors and pets.
- Hacks that keep sims nude, if wanted, or turn off "shocked" reactions to same.
Other Things That Are Allowed:
- If a stray pet wanders onto the lot, the sims may autonomously befriend it, but they may not adopt it. Generally, though, they will not be able to, because the Contestants should be fenced off from the road.
- Hobbies that can be done without the benefit of an item (eg, collecting bugs, birdwatching), are fine, if they are started autonomously. If the computer gift is delivered, it may not be used except by the playable Host Sim.
- 3. You may direct a Contestant sim if such direction will immediately stop them from dying (eg, to eat or to get out of a lightning storm or if they fall asleep on the beach and look like getting heat stroke or killed by hail), and also as directed throughout the challenge. However, this is an emergency only option, so is not an invitation to neglect them until they're almost dead so you can direct them twice in a day.
- Once a day, except for Day 1, apart from as directed by the challenge, or to prevent death, you may direct each Contestant Sim only once.
You may only direct them to do a "want", and if there are no wants that apply (eg, you may not buy an item or get them a job), then they may not be directed.
If fulfilling a want of Sim A also fulfils a want of Sim B (for example, if Sim A wishes to "flirt" and Sim B wants to "be friends with Sim A" and flirting makes them friends), then Sim B may not also be directed.
If the direction is cancelled for any reason (eg, a fire breaks out), unless it is due to a bug in the lot, then you may not redirect.
On "reward challenge day" (ie, Days 1, 3, 5, etc), this may be done at any time during the day.
However, on "Immunity Challenge Day" (ie, 2, 4, 6, etc) this may not be done until after the Challenge has been completed. Once the merge has occurred and both challenges are held, then you must direct between the challenges (again, the exception is if a sim is going to die).
You may lock a want until fulfilled. The trick is to use your one direction a day to best effect for all of your contestants, because this will play a part in who eventually wins, and you can't always know who will be eliminated. - You can play your Host sim as normal (hobbies, etc), except that they may not interact with the Contestant sims while they are still Contestants (except as specified), they may not have visitors, and they may not leave the lot. Their "social" motive can be taken care of via phone calls and chatting on the computer.
- For the purposes of the challenge, a day is determined to begin and end at midnight. So Day 1 is a "short" day.
More About The Playable/Host Sim
The Host Sim may have been previously played.
Apart from as directed may not interact with the Contestant Sims.
The relationship scores with the Host Sim do not apply to any scoring in the game.
The Host Sim may not leave the lot for the duration of the challenge, unless directed by the challenge.
You will need to do the following things to prepare your Host Sim before you move in your Contestant Sims:
- Spawn the "Sim Modder" and get all skills to half, if they aren't at least that already.
Open up your cheat window by hitting Ctrl-shift-C
Enter : boolprop TestingCheatsEnabled true
Shift-click on your sim and select Spawn... more... sim modder
Click on the sim modder and adjust all motives to "mid".
Delete the sim modder
Turn off TCE by opening your cheat window again. This time, enter: boolprop TestingCheatsEnabled false
Warning: failure to turn off this cheat may bork your game. - Spawn Career Rewards
Select your Host Sim
Open your cheat window as before
Enter: unlockCareerRewards
All rewards should now be in your Host Sims Career inventory
The reason for both of these will be apparent as the game goes on. - Buy, and place in your Host Sim's inventory:
7 treadmills
7 seats (maximum comfort: 5)
1 buffet (max hunger: 8)
1 bar (fun: 3)
3 Deluxe Log Rolling Pits
1 Axe-olutely Throwing Station
1 White rabbit bubble blower (comfort: 6, fun: 8)
Use the "motherlode" cheat if necessary. - Order Chinese Takeout and place the tray of Chinese Food in your Host Sim's Inventory.
The Game
Move the Host Sim onto the lot first, either before building it, or by using the FamilyFunds cheat in the neighbourhood screen to give them enough $ to move in.
Then make your 7 Contestants for each lot, and amalgamate them into the lots. This means both tribes start out "on par".
For the first 7 eliminations, the lots are played separately, and you are repeating the process for each lot. You will need to switch lots once a day.
Once per day, the Host Sim can empty the Contestant's garbage. This may only happen once, and the Host Sim may not pick up any other garbage.
While there are two "tribes" (until there are 7 contestants left), odd days are "rewards" days and even days are "immunity challenge" days.
Day 1: Arrival on the Island! The Host Sim calls everyone to the communal area, initiates "hang out", and gets all Contestant Sims to join, then leaves to go to their hut.
Any Contestant Sims that do not join are not to be directed to do so. Any Contestant Sims that leave are not to be directed back.
Other than this, leave the Contestant Sims alone to Free Will.
Reward Challenge:
At 7pm, pause the game and add up the top and bottom relationship scores for all of your Contestant Sims, then save and head to the other lot and repeat Day 1.
The tribe with the highest total has the best teamwork, and wins.
They win: Fire. Add a Grillinator "Big BQ" (maximum hunger: 1), and a fire alarm (if you haven't already) to their lot.
Note: And what if the other tribe are starving to death? This is okay, the Host Sim may order Chinese Takeout and each sim may have 1 box only to stave off death, to a total of once per day until they, too, "get fire" by attending a tribal council. It is a good idea to order this ahead, and have 1 in the inventory every day, so that you don't end up with any starved sims.
Remember: aspiration failure is perfectly fine, death is not!
Yes, they're all eating but the tribe with the grill also have members building cooking points ahead of time, which will matter later, as you shall see.
Once there is a grill on the lot, the Host Sim may no longer order them food.
Using the grill: autonomous. You may use the grill as often as a sim wishes to do so, and may direct a sim to eat of the results if they aren't doing so and are likely to die. You may not direct to clean up afterwards, unless it is one of the "wants" described earlier (ie, if a Contestant rolls "influence a sim to clean").
If no sim autonomously cooks, then you may direct a sim to do so. If you do, this sim may not be directed again for a want. Hint: choose a sim with "gain a cooking skill point" as a want, lock that want and have the sim be your cook.
You may also direct a sim to cook under the same caveats if a sim will starve to death otherwise, even if another sim has cooked.
Note: asking sims on a date is not a way to get around this. Sims may date, but after the initial ask you can't direct that sim again, so be prepared for the date to be a bust.
Day 2: Leave the Contestants to their own devices until 10am, then SAVE your game (so you can reload if you kill someone and wish to continue).
Immunity Challenge:
Obviously, getting both tribes together at this venture is problem-laden, so we're going with an "equivalent".
At 9.45am, pause the game, cancel whatever your Contestant Sims are doing and direct them to the Challenge area.
Put 7 treadmills and 7 seating (maximum comfort 5) in your challenge area.
Physical Challenge: At 10am, pause the game again. Then direct each Contestant Sim to use a treadmill.
If the Contestants refuse to use the treadmill or get off for any reason, you may not redirect them to do so. You may direct them to sit if they do end the challenge.
Continue on the treadmills until all Contestants have jumped off or stopped (for any reason), or for 3 sim hours, whichever comes first.
Once done, score the results:
For each sim that gets a body point:
1 point per sim
For each body point:
1 point per skill point
This should vary, as the sims may have autonomously swum in the ocean, which builds body points, and some sims may not continue to build points for varying reasons (like being too hungry, for example).
Lose a point for each sim who refused to get on at all.
Then repeat the Challenge with the other tribe.
The tribe with the most points has won immunity and gets the Immunity Idol!
To break a tie, add up the relationship points, as before. The team with the highest number had better teamwork, and therefore wins.
What is the Immunity Idol? It is the Adventure Career Award, the big Golden Skull of Jumbok IV. Now, this guy actually ups motives, so he is an advantage... but to stop him from being too much of an advantage, he must not be placed within 8 squares of the shelter (or wherever your sims sleep, if you don't have one). Place the idol on the winner's lot.
At this point, you may direct sim wants, as previously described.
Tribal Council: is at 7pm. Take your losing sims to the Voting area, and let them sit for 15 sim minutes (this balances out the idol a bit ;)).
Pause the game, check relationship scores of the losing tribe and add the daily to the lifetime relationship for each sim. The one with the lowest score has been voted out. The tribe has spoken, and that sim goes into the hut with the Host sim, and may not interact with the Contestant Sims again (this will be especially important later, after the merge).
If this tribe did not win the rewards challenge, they can get their "fire" (grill) at tribal council (this will happen whenever the tribe without the grill loses immunity, however long it takes).
In the event that a sim is pregnant, has severe heat stroke or a flu that has continued for more than 36 sim hours, they automatically are voted out, no matter who won immunity.
Days 3 - 14
This cycle continues until the merge (when you're down to 7 Contestant Sims).
On Days 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13, at 7pm, there is a "reward challenge" run in the exact same way as on Day 1.
However, you can only do this with the same number of sims on each lot, so the lot with more Contestant Sims still in the game must "sit out" enough sims to make the teams equal in number. To decide this, roll 2 six-sided dice for each sim. The sim/s with the lowest rolls sit out and their relationship scores are NOT counted, either from or for them. In the event of a tie, re-roll until the correct number of sims sit out.
So, for example, if Team 1 has 7 sims, and Team 2 has 5, then Team 1 must sit out 2 sims.
As teams whittle down to a total of 7 sims, you may find that teams are very unbalanced (eg, looking like 5 in one team, 2 in another at merger). If, at Tribal Council, a team is about to have their numbers eliminated so they drop down to fewer than three (ie, 2 members), then they must immediately "choose" a member of the other team to join them. This is done, again, by rolling 2 x d6 for the other team. In this case, the sim with the highest number is to "move out" and then move in with the smaller team. Note: this means there will always be 4 sims from 1 team and 3 from the other at merger.
If any sim is about to die, has heat stroke or illness, they must be one of the ones that sit out.
Team Rewards:
Day 1: The grill (as already described)
Day 3: The team has won fresh "water"!! Give the team a sink, of any kind (custom or not, but not hacked), to a maximum of 5 hygiene.
Using the sink: autonomous only. The sims may use the sink to wash in, or to wash their dishes, etc, but you may not direct them to do this. You may direct them to "drink water" if they have heat stroke.
Day 5: The team has won a feast! Put out and serve the full buffet, leaving it out until it goes green. Then direct one sim to clean it up and put it back into your Host Sim's inventory.
Day 7: Hygiene!! The team has won a shower if they previously got the sink, or "water" (a sink), as for Day 2, if they didn't get it last time. If it is a shower, then only the communal shower may be used (or a "I will shower in public" custom equivalent to a maximum hygiene of 7). If custom, the shower may not be otherwise hacked, of course. Note: no baths. You can choose to put it up against a single "wall" or use the "move objects_on" cheat to hang it out by itself.
Using the shower: autonomous only. Sims may never be directed to use. Use of the sink has already been described.
Day 9: Three "Feel The Breeze" or Swing Away Hammocks (Comfort: 3, Energy: 3). NOT the tent.
Using the hammocks: autonomous. You may not direct a sim to use the hammock, and it's "first come, first sleep". However, you may direct a sim to woohoo, play, etc on a hammock for their single want directive, if you wish (I don't recommend this if you have the "risky woohoo" hack because even with aging off, a pregnant sim will lose motives faster than the others). Keep in mind the rules re fulfilling 2 wants if you do this.
Day 11: A full buffet, as for Day 5.
Day 13: Finally, someone dug a proper hole and brought the loo paper! Give the winning team a toilet. All toilets have Bladder: 10, but you may not choose a toilet with a comfort motive.
Immunity Challenges:
On days 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 & 14, you have immunity challenges and tribal council as described for day 2, running in the same way. From Day 4, however, the immunity idol has to be put away before the challenge. So, at 9.45am, save, pause the game, put the "idol" back in your Host Sim's inventory, cancel whatever your Contestant Sims are doing and direct them to the Challenge area.
Each time, put out the same number of seats as there are sims, and direct the ones who aren't playing to sit.
The physical challenge starts at 10am on each day. As with the rewards challenges, you may have to sit sims out to make sure the teams are even. Use the same process.
Again, to ever break a tie, add up the relationship points, as before, only on the sims who were not sitting out. The team with the highest number had better teamwork, and therefore wins (always take a note of these at the end of the immunity challenge for the first lot you play to avoid having to pop back again, to check).
The Tribal Council is run at 7pm in the same way as on Day 2 once both tribes have run their challenge.
The challenges are as follows:
Day 2: as described above.
Day 4: The Sandcastles Challenge
Direct each Contestant Sim to make sandcastles on the beach.
If the Contestants refuse to build or stop for any reason, you may not redirect them to do so. You may direct them to sit if they do end the challenge.
Continue until all Contestants have stopped (for any reason), or for 3 sim hours, whichever comes first.
Once done, score the results:
For each sim that gets a creativity point:
1 point per sim
For each creativity point:
1 point per skill point
This should vary, as the sims may have autonomously built their own before.
Lose a point for each sim who refused to make a sandcastle.
Day 6: The Handy Dandy Fallover Log Roll Challenge
Put out your 3 Deluxe Log Rolling Pits, and assign random pairs to play, and direct them to. If you have a 7 to 5 ratio, meaning that each team has 5 to play once you've sat the spares out on one team, then one sim waits to go again.
Heat 1: Have the paired sims go against each other until one of each falls. That sim "loses". The odd one out (if any) goes up against the last of the "losers" to fall, to finish heat 1.
Heat 2: If you have 4 sims left, then repeat the process until 2 more have fallen. Then you have a third heat, where the last 2 sims go against each other.
If you have 3 sims left (which would be the case in an odd number), then put 1 on each log and the last to fall wins.
If a sim refuses to play, then they lose by default.
You may not direct a sim to "watch" (but they may do so autonomously).
Direct the last sim standing onto the log again and time them. Make a note of the time it took them to fall. The team whose last sim is up for the longest wins.
Day 8: Shells, Shells, Shells
Direct each sim to "comb for seashells" on the beach. Have them do this for exactly 3 sim hours. The team who find the most items at the end (no matter what they are) wins.
If a sim stops beachcombing, you may not redirect them to search. The exception to this is: you may redirect if they find something (even if it's being bitten by a crab) because they stop otherwise.
Day 10: Axe-olooootely
Set up an Axe-olutely Throwing Station, then roll 2d6 to determine the order in which they throw, lowest roll goes first, highest last. Direct each sim, in turn, to throw axes, until they have thrown 5. Tally up the number of bullseyes. The team with the most wins.
In this instance, you may direct sims who stop back until they total five throws each, but they must go in order (ie, once the next sim starts, the previous sim may not go back if they haven't finished).
This game is based on mechanical skill, not one the contestants are likely to have worked on autonomously, so make sure you take a note of relationships because you may very well end up with a 0-0 tie.
Day 12: [coming soon]
Day 14: Swim For Your Life
Direct each sim into the ocean, let them swim around for 3 sim hours, then tally up body points again exactly as you did for the treadmill challenge on Day 2.
Sims who get out of the ocean of their own accord may not be directed back in.
Body point totals do include those already counted.
And at this Tribal Council, your Host Sim announces... the MERGE is happening!!! Wheeeeee...
[more soon]
